More Letters to the Editor

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, July 31, 2007

CELL PHONE COMPANIES

The "Subsidy to cell phone companies scrutinized" article that was published July 23 failed to make many important points. While the article rightly highlights the need for Universal Service Fund reform, it skims over the fact that wireline carriers don't lose support when they lose customers, and doesn't address the subsequent consequences: When wireline telephone companies get support for customers they don't even serve, consumers lose.

When consumers cancel or scale back their landline phone services in exchange for cell phones and wireless technology -- an increasing trend in rural and urban America -- wireline companies continue to rake in $3 billion annually, and millions more from state universal service programs.

Ten percent of rural wireline customers have already "cut the cord." This is the equivalent of $300 million in excess subsidy annually, an amount that grows each year as consumers increasingly turn to wireless for their voice communications needs.

U.S. Cellular, like every wireless company, is required by law to account for our network construction plans, and to be specific with what we've done with federal funding we have received since 2003. For Washington consumers, this is no small matter. In fact, the federal fund provides an estimated $3 million per year to support U.S. Cellular network construction in some of the state's rural areas.

In stark contrast, wireline companies have received $22 billion in federal funds and are not required by law to account for the necessity of their investments. It would be an understatement to call this arrangement an affront to consumers.

Congress has found that rural residents deserve access to reliable wireless services and the competitive choices afforded to residents of more urban communities. USF funds have enabled U.S. Cellular to build new towers in communities that wouldn't otherwise have access -- opening doors for new business growth, and stronger E-911 technology for emergency response or disaster relief and offering the mobility that consumers want in today's world.

The bottom line is that the USF subsidizes old technology that is losing customers at the expense of new technology that consumers clearly want and need. Consumers deserve transparency when it comes to the use of their federal dollars, and most of all, they deserve the benefits that come with real competition: choices in providers and services, fair prices, and high quality service.

Isn't it ironic that the business community does not support the very person for port commissioner who has a track record for being a fiscal watchdog and for challenging the port's public tax subsidy policy? Isn't it the job of a port commissioner to scrutinize the wisdom of the financial dealings of the port? King County property owners are lucky that Alec Fisken is looking out for their interests. Being a port commissioner does not mean blindly supporting every business decision made by the port administration. Fisken is a rare public servant, indeed.

They argued that, under the First Amendment, broadcasters have the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on public airwaves.

And so goes our last check and balance on power.

Lying is now a profit center for major media. There is no need to pay a journalists to to dig up facts. The story is generated by the company or politician who needs the benefit of a good cover story. The media outlet can claim it is just offering "opinion" or is "giving balance to an issue" -- sort of like giving voice to someone who claims the earth is flat to achieve "balance" against some scientist showing a photo of a round Earth.

If you never heard of this case, it's due to another freedom of the press, "the freedom to censor the news."

So the question remains: In an era where "patriotism" is bandied as a rhetorical weapon against people speaking out against our nations wrongs, what is the news media's version of "patriotism"?

Selling your media space to liars because it is more profitable than truth? Censoring the truth through omission or outright laziness?

Only a fool would twist the freedom of the press to be the freedom to lie, fools who make money and gain power damaging our democracy and feeding the endless machine of corruption.

Marc SterlingOlympia

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

The League of Women Voters of King County South appreciates your July 26 editorial regarding the potential destruction of affordable housing by the Port of Seattle. The League has had a position on low-income housing since 1970. We believe that all levels of government and the private sector share the responsibility to help alleviate the housing shortage in the low-income sector. Identifying housing needs and planning to meet those needs is best done at the local level.

When the Port of Seattle purchased the Lora Lake apartments in 1998, it was prior to the incredible run-up of housing prices in the whole Puget Sound area. This has made affordable housing availability a critical issue today. Burien's land-use decisions and agreements with the Port of Seattle need to be revisited in light of the current housing situation. The Port of Seattle should take time to seriously consider King County's offer to buy the property to support the county's ten year plan to eliminate homelessness.

Becky CoxPresident League of Women Voters of King County South

GLOBAL WARMING

In response to Gerald D. Cline Jr.'s " 'Neo-ecologists' following a well-worn path July 18th." Overpopulation, global warming and ice sheets are all connected. The "disaster" hasn't changed. Us "neo-Malthusians" are just learning more about the disaster and it's causes through continued studies. We immediately discard junk science and religious hoo-hah and stick with the facts that present themselves. So here it is; overpopulation contributes to global warming, which will in turn lead to long-term cloud cover and then eventually an ice age. Of course this isn't going to happen overnight. Of course it is not known how much exactly overpopulation does contribute to global warming. The fact is that it does.

If you don't believe it get in a two-person tent with four people and see how warm it gets. Try running a small gas-powered generator in there for a while. (Don't do this in a nylon tent. Canvas would be best.)

The debate about global warming may be about control for some; it should be about preparedness.

Regarding the July 27 article, "Panel recommends climate change market, I have always believed that we in the Northwest care more about our environment than residents of any other region of the country. For that reason, I think that we can do a better job of curbing global warming in our state. I am excited to learn that residents of our area will have the opportunity of attending the meeting of the Climate Action Team on Aug. 7 at the Seattle Convention Center.

This is a crucial time for us to encourage our state's leaders to come together in a non-partisan manner in order to adopt the very best climate action plan for the state of Washington and for our children's future.

It was good to see the write-up for Smart Cars in the Tuesday P-I ("In line for Smart Cars"). But to promote them by saying "40 miles per gallon and max speed 90 mph" is irresponsible. To go that fast in any car is risky. To do so in a very small car is suicidal. We are all aware that more than 40,000 people are killed every year on U.S. highways, and that speeding is often the cause. Forty thousand per year is about 65 times the death rate of Americans in Iraq. We grieve about deaths in Iraq, but accept this much higher rate of slaughter on the highways at home, and even promote it, by talking about driving at 90 mph.

I drive an all-electric ZAP Xebra, which will go 45 mph max. This is quite fast enough for city driving. Some ask, "But is it safe?" I am quick to remind them, "No car is safe." We are conditioned to believe you are safe in a heavy, high-powered car with airbags, seat belts, disk brakes, power assists of all kinds ... but it is a deadly fiction promoted to help sell expensive cars. We could be a lot safer if we just slowed down.

Jeff DouthwaiteSeattle

SLAUGHTER

Recently I was sent a special gift from a favorite former Shoreline high school teacher. My former teacher (now retired) is married to a tenured professor at Virginia Tech. The gift she sent me was a special magnetic commemorative ribbon honoring the memory of the 32 murder victims from the April 16th Virginia Tech massacre. Fortunately her husband was in an adjacent building during the rampage and survived. The events at Virginia Tech shocked and horrified a nation. During the aftermath of the massacre, Americans coast to coast were given the opportunity through intensive media coverage to learn about the victims -- their dreams, their goals, their lives. The media succeeded in both respecting and honoring the victims of this tragedy. Virtually every American was united in sorrow following the events at Virginia Tech.

I contrast this event with an even greater tragedy -- the ongoing genocide in Iraq. What Americans have to come to terms with is that the Virginia Tech slaughter is just a typical afternoon in Baghdad.

The death toll for Iraqi civilians is rapidly approaching one million. This tally does not even factor the countless thousands maimed and ruined. Consider the impact of 50 plus air strikes a day in Iraq. "The unrelenting U.S. air attack on Iraq is one of the great -- and under reported tragedies of the Iraq disaster." The estimated death toll from our unrelenting bombing is an estimated 150,000 dead and counting.

Here are the rough numbers -- every day between 50 and 100 Iraqis perish through U.S. air strikes. Add to our under reported air war carnage the shooting or bombing of civilians by either the U.S. military, foreign mercenaries, or sectarian forces and you begin to get a glimpse -- just a glimpse of the horror that was unleashed on Iraq in March 2003. In a nation of more than 300 million people, we were stunned and shocked about one terrible event at Virginia Tech. Imagine if we had to endure an April 16 Virginia Tech incident every day -- with no end in sight?

If the U.S. media would for just one day treat the Iraqi war with the respect, dignity and humanity provided the victims at Virginia Tech, the war would end in a day. However, we are not even allowed to view pictures of our own war dead and wounded -- for fear of citizen backlash -- our greatest foreign policy debacle.

Given the level of disdain and indifference U.S. war planners show for our own war dead and their families -- one can only imagine the level of contempt allotted for dead Iraqis.

Jim SawyerEdmonds

THE MIDDLE EAST

If our government really wants to create security in the Middle East, it should spend our tax dollars on the programs that would address the root causes of despair and rage among the disposessed in that region: education, medical services, infrastructure improvements, agricultural development, new industries and technologies to create jobs and build hope.

Of course I'm saying nothing new here. We've had innumerable reports from "the streets" from Gaza to Cairo to Islamabad about how people are being driven into the arms of "radicals" because they are the only ones who offer any kind of alternative to the hell in which the people there find themselves interred.

Remember, Hamas and Hezbollah were providing clinics, financial aid, food and other badly needed basic services to their communities. They were stepping into a vacuum left, in part, by our policies and they were winning hearts and minds which then became more receptive to their political agendas. We should be taking the hint and doing them one better with a regional Marshall Plan that would demonstrate our nobler intentions for the aspirations of all. Those clinics and schools should have "made in America" on them.

Instead, with wearisome predictability, we are selling American weapons -- weapons our "friends" can rattle at our "enemies" at our behest, weapons to maintain a perilous status quo, that shall only serve to guarantee our own long term insecurity.

Once again our government shall miss an opportunity to create the conditions for real peace in the region; and once again we shall be reviled by those who know that change is inevitable and who have the determination to bring it about. We will probably not like the outcome.

Bill terKuileMonroe

DICK CHENEY

I find it hilarious when Dick Cheney assumes a nom de plume and writes in to the letters feature like he's a regular guy from, say Bremerton, about how utterly absurd any impeachment effort would be against him or his succubus, er, The President. I hear from reliable sources that it's one of his his favorite past-times.

Then in a funny literary affectation, like he's a little "off" in the head, writes about how it would only serve to bring the republican party together again (which scares the heck out of everyone) in what I like to call a reverse "Please don't throw me in th' briar patch" strategery (the latter a Bushism). And then there's always some loony off-the-wall reference to Bill or Hillary Clinton and/or how it's just all about people who hate the president and the vice president (who is most certainly NOT the letter writer) for no good reason and how they really haven't violated virtually every tenet of the constitution, lied about starting a war causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people or attempted to create a fascist state. On a good day he'll get in some licks about Lilly-livered liberals or spineless democrats!